


An Unforeseen Reunion

by Jay_Lee_Leuis



Category: Dragon Age - All Media Types
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-25
Updated: 2018-02-25
Packaged: 2019-03-23 15:37:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,096
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13790781
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jay_Lee_Leuis/pseuds/Jay_Lee_Leuis
Summary: Even if the dead return, it's sometimes too late for a happy ending.





	An Unforeseen Reunion

Leliana waited. The wind whispered outside, occasional gusts rattling the tavern’s moldy shutters like restless spirits. The fire in the hearth gave off more smoke than warmth, and a thick, dim haze had settled into every crevice of the room, mingling with the stale smell of long-ago spilled ale. It was a nasty place. Filthy, drafty and cold. Hardly a wonder she had been able to convince the tavern keeper to rent her the entire common room for the night. How long would she wait before admitting it was a fool’s errand that brought her here, Leliana wondered. It had been all dubious rumors and unreliable witnesses, until the note that set up this meeting. It was the handwriting on the note that had decided it. It was a handwriting she would not soon forget.

The door opened. It was an unremarkable sound, no ominous creak to herald the figure crossing the threshold, no crash of wood on rotting wood: the figure caught the door before the wind could and shut it carefully behind them. Leliana stood up. “I was beginning to think I would be sitting here all night,” she said, one hand casually gripping the short sword at her side.

The figure stepped closer, into the pale light from the fire. “I’m sorry about that,” said a familiar voice. “It’s. . . good to see you again, Leliana.”

Leliana stared. “Tabris,” she said. Her voice was calm, but her knees threatened to buckle. The woman standing before her – Tabris – She was dead. She had died, had disappeared. The Hero of Ferelden, the woman who had nobly sacrificed her life for the sake of them all, was somehow standing before her. Leliana reached out and cupped her face with a shaking hand, and Tabris smiled that same crooked smile Leliana had come to know so well. She laid her hand over Leliana’s and turned her head slightly to press a gentle kiss against Leliana’s open palm.

Leliana wanted nothing more than to pull her close, to kiss her like she had all those years ago by their campfire, but something stopped her, and her other hand stayed clasped around her sword. Hers was no world for such easy trust. “You’ve been gone a very long time,” she said.

Tabris gave her a long look. “Yes,” she said, “I have.” She dropped her hand and took a step back, and Leliana remembered how to breath.

“So,” Leliana said, “you’re alive.”

“I am,” Tabris replied. She settled onto one of the precarious wooden chairs, and Leliana, after a moment’s hesitation, sat across from her. “I. . . made a deal, of sorts,” Tabris continued. “With Morrigan. Before we fought the Archdemon.”

“Morrigan?” Leliana echoed dumbly. The witch had disappeared after the battle, and even the Chantry networks Leliana controlled had been unable to track her down. Leliana had thought her dead.

Tabris nodded. “She wanted. . . who knows what she wanted. She told me that if she conceived a child with a Grey Warden before the battle, then the soul of the Archdemon would be drawn into that child. She said that the child would be some sort of old god reborn. I didn’t entirely believe her, but. . .” Tabris trailed off for a moment, tracing a long scratch in the table. “But I didn’t want to die. We managed to convince Alistair, and, well. Whatever, she did it worked. I survived.”

“And then you disappeared.” Leliana felt ice in the pit of her stomach, spreading throughout her veins. “You let me—You let all of us believe you were gone.”

Tabris looked down. “Leliana,” she said slowly, “I’m not the person you thought I was. I’m not some noble hero. Maker, I’m not even a _good_ person. Look at me, I saved my life at the expense of—I don’t even know what! I have no idea what Morrigan plans, or what the consequences are. And I didn’t care. And then, afterwards—” Her voice faltered, but she continued doggedly. “There were so many dead. And there I was, alive, because I was too selfish to do the right thing. I don’t deserve—”

“ _I_ didn’t deserve to lose you like that,” Leliana broke in fiercely. “Did you ever think of that?”

Tabris sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. “Of course I did,” she said. “I know it was selfish of me, but I knew that you would find out eventually, you would realize what sort of person I am. I couldn’t be a hero, but I wanted you to remember me as one. I wanted everyone to.”

Leliana stared at the woman seated across from her. She started to reach out, but stopped herself, clasping her hands in front of her as if in prayer. “Tabris, I never fell in love with a hero,” she said in a low voice. “I fell in love with you. And then you died. You were gone. And I mourned you. Maker’s blood, you have no idea what you put me through.” Something broke inside of her and suddenly the words came rushing out like blood from a wound. “You left, you’ve been gone for years, and now you come back with this story about how guilty you are, how pathetic you felt, as if that excuses anything, and you—” These were words she could never take back, and she didn’t care. “You were right about one thing, my love,” she said. “You are not the person I thought you were. That person would never have done this to me.”

Tabris shook her head ruefully. “I know,” she said. “I don’t expect forgiveness. I suppose I just wanted you to know the truth.” She stood up slowly. “I should be going. If you ever do need to contact me— for a woman of your resources, it won’t be impossible.”

“No,” Leliana said. She clasped Tabris’ hand for a long moment before letting her fingers slip away. “Goodbye.”

Tabris nodded, lips pressed tightly together, and returned back into the night as quietly as she had come.

The door closed with a soft thud, and a hollow silence settled over the room. It was a silence of a thousand tiny noises: the crackling fire, the rush of wind outside, her own heart beating in her ears. Leliana dropped her head into her hands. Later, the normal rhythm of life would resume. She would sleep, wake, return to Val Royeaux and resume her duties just as she always had. But for now, she simply sat, head bowed and shoulders shaking, and let the world move on without her.


End file.
